One of the many vectors used by the Chinese hackers in the infamous Google Hack Attack was a previously unknown vulnerability in Internet Explorer. This prompted the BSI (German Federal Office for Security in Information Technology) to advise against using Internet Explorer till a patch is released. Latest data from major alternate browser manufacturers suggest that German users are indeed paying heed to their Government’s advice.

The advisory resulted in a significant increase in the number of downloads of Firefox as well as Opera. While Opera didn’t divulge the exact figures, Choose Opera reported that the number of Opera downloads in Germany during doubled over the weekend.

On the other hand, Firefox experienced 300,000 downloads during the recent Friday-Monday period. The red area in the graph denotes the incremental impact, i.e. the number of downloads above and beyond what is expected.

Firefox Downloads

The exploit in question affects all versions of Internet Explorer since IE 6 and can be seen in action over here. Microsoft is expected to release a patch later today to fix the vulnerability.

Pallab De is a blogger from India who has a soft spot for anything techie. He loves trying out new software and spends most of his day breaking and fixing his PC. Pallab loves participating in the social web; he has been active in technology forums since he was a teenager and is an active user of both twitter (@indyan) and facebook .